Family Affair
by YoungestCullen8
Summary: Dallyn has lived a very comfortable life. When he mother is taken, she goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. in hopes they can help her.
1. Chapter 1

Dallyn Anderson walked into her house and closed the door. Rifling through the mail as she walked to the kitchen, she found a letter that was closed with an authentic seal. She had seen the seal before but her mother had always hidden the meaning of it from her. She ripped the envelope open and began to read through it.

Annoyed at her deception, Dallyn went in search for her mother. For the last twenty-six years every time she had asked about her father, her mother would make up an excuse as to why he wasn't in her life. When she was a kid, it was all right. Her mom had been enough of a mother and a father for her. But as she got older, her excuses didn't match up. Dallyn was an only child so she wanted to know what her father was like.

Elise Anderson was in her music studio practicing the cello when Dallyn walked in. Her mother was an accomplished musician, having played all over the world for millions of people. Dallyn had always gone with her as a child, having a tutor to give her lessons. When she became a teenager, Elise took a job with the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra so her daughter could go to high school like a normal teenager. It meant a pay reduction but she wanted her child to have a normal high school life. Life was made easier when Dallyn graduated at the top of her class.

Her mother worked even harder when she wanted to go to college. Dallyn had wanted to major in bioengineering but had settled for regular engineering. She had gone away to MIT and graduated in the top ten percent. After graduating she had been asked to continue with her master's degree and go on to a professional think tank. School bothered her so she finished with her main degree and went on to work on planes and trains.

"Mom," she said as she knocked on the door then went in the room. She heard the tune of the cello stop suddenly. She held up the letter. "What is this?"

Elise looked up then had to do a double take. Her bow hand dropped and she looked to be a twenty-two year old instead of the forty-eight year old she was. It wasn't a secret that Dallyn had been born to a young mother. The Eighties was when women really started having children out of wedlock so it wasn't uncommon. Dallyn had grown up respecting her mother. Elise had married when her daughter was six but the relationship hadn't lasted long because the man didn't want a child. Ever since then, she had been determined that if a man didn't want the both of them he wouldn't get her. It had been just the two of them.

"Mom?" Dallyn asked as she moved further into the room. "What is it?"

"You know I promised never to lie to you," Elise replied.

"Yes…? Mom, what is going on?" She was slightly impatient as she watched her mother stand up and move to the bookshelf on the far wall. "What are you doing?"

"Do you remember when you were a little girl and I took you to see that nice man in Dallas?" she asked as she pulled a book off the shelf.

Dallyn carefully moved around the room. Something inside her said this was about to get really interested and she didn't know if she was going to be able to handle it. Something about that letter had her mother scared.

"Dallyn, for the last fifteen years I have done everything I could to make sure you were safe. When you turned thirteen, you started displaying symptoms. You were always agitated and your temper was short. You could never pay attention for very long. At first I thought it was just a normal thing for a teenager to go through. Then you started moving metals around. You could unlock doors with a single thought. Dallyn, I was scared for you."

"What did you do?" She started twisting her hands, something that she did when she was nervous. "Mom, did you hurt me?"

"No!" Dallyn felt that her mother was telling the truth. "No, I did not hurt you. I found a man who agreed to help me. He couldn't take whatever it was you were born with, but he agreed to help curb the effects. Your earrings are the things that control your abilities. If you take them out you will find that you can move anything metal in this room, unlock doors and windows. Did you wonder why you were so good at engineering? It's because of this. You are able to understand metals and which ones work best."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was afraid that someone was going to come after you. It happened when you were a little girl. When you were six actually. I married Joe because I thought he would be good for our family. You liked him at first. He was a good man that took care of both of us. Then one day I overheard a phone call. He was only here to keep an eye on you until you were a teenager. Then he was to train you for something. I didn't know what he meant so I kicked him out. It all made sense when you turned thirteen. If he had stayed, I would probably be dead."

Dallyn rushed to her mother and hugged her tightly. Her mom had lied to protect her. Most people would get very angry over it, but understanding what was going on helped ease the throb. Her mom had only lied to her once. She could forgive that.

"What's with the book?" she asked as she touched the spine.

"It's not just an ordinary book, Dally." Elise pulled back enough so she could open it. The book was hollowed out and on the inside was a necklace. "This is yours. It belonged to your father."

Dallyn looked up sharply then looked down at the necklace. It was a silver medallion on a matching chain. She couldn't tell what the symbol was but it looked like an eagle. She watched her mom pull the necklace out. Elise held it up then put it around her neck. She brushed her fingers across it.

"Your father doesn't know about you. I never told him because he was too busy and it seemed like he didn't care. So I raised you as best I could. I like to think I did a good job." She framed her daughter's face then pressed her forehead to Dallyn's. "We don't have much time. Use that medallion and find your father. Tell him your mother's in danger. If he doesn't know who you are, tell him my name."

Fear clenched the young woman sharply. "Mom, what are you saying?"

"Just do what I say."

The window exploded inward. Dallyn could only cover her face to keep from getting cut from the flying glass. She heard her mother scream. Someone had come into their house and was looking to get to her mother.

"Dallyn, run!" he mother yelled over one of the men's hand. "They can't get you."

"I won't leave you!" she yelled.

"Get out of here!"

There was nothing she could do. One of the men jerked her mom out the window and disappeared. She felt like she was in the book series The Mortal Instruments, except she wasn't Clary Fray who couldn't do squat. Dallyn had been picked on in high school for looking different so she had learned to fight.

She caught the man who charged her in the ribs. He grunted but didn't go down. Men were different than women in that aspect. She had to get out of the house if she was going to make it. She tucked the medallion into her shirt and booked it out the door. The men followed her. One cleared the landing to the stairs and landed into front of her. She skidded to a halt in front of the front door. This wasn't going to happen the way she wanted it to.

"_Your earrings hold in your abilities." _

Her mother's voice rang in her head. She reached up and pulled one of the earrings from her ears. The metal in her hand vibrated as it sat in her palm. Without second thought, Dallyn summoned the iron poker to her. It flew into her hand. Shocked but not ready to give up, she swung. Both men dodged so they didn't get skewered. It gave her time to book it out the door.

She flew to her 2010 Chevy Camaro and prayed that the engine started. Too many bad horror movies showed the person with a perfectly good car that ran and when they went to get away, the engine never started. Luckily the engine caught and purred. Stomping her foot down, she sped away from the house. She hated this. That house had been her home for nine years. Now it was a mess.

She took a picture of her medallion then did a search on her phone. She was going to have to get a new one soon. That and ditch the car if she couldn't disable the GPS tracking chip every car came with nowadays. When the results came back on the picture, she gritted her teeth.

(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)

"Sir, we have another beacon that lit."

Agent Phil Coulson sighed and nodded. "Thank you, Agent Ward."

It was the third one that had ignited in the last three days. If they kept going on like this, he was going to have to hire a ninth person to help him. As it was, he was already working with four of the best agents and a hacker who could just about anything. With that much arrogance on the ship, he was looking to knock heads.

Dallas, Texas, had had the first pop two weeks ago. It was followed by Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Walla Walla and now Seattle. With the Extremis scare still a great possibility, they couldn't take any chances. Anyone injected with the serum had a hard time coping. They knew it was curable but some of the people injected wanted to keep it. That couldn't happen due to the chance of combustion. So with these beacons popping up all over the west, they had to find whatever the cause was.

He got up and left his office. His team would be working on this immediately. He just needed an update so he could get involved as well. Ward was working on something. He looked a little sheepish in the process. He was up to something. May was flying the plane. All she asked was to be kept in the loop. Fitz and Simmons were sequestered in their lab working on the Extremis formula. Skye was trying to trace the beacons.

"I think all of the beacons were ignited by one person," she said. She kept typing on the computer. "The same set of numbers keeps popping up. I try to trace the numbers but they die. When a beacon lights, they come back then die again. It's like they know how to get our attention."

"Are we looking at someone who can hack us?" Ward asked. He slid his eyes to Skye.

"I don't know. Where was the last time the numbers popped up?" Coulson asked.

"Seattle. It was ten seconds after the last beacon lit."

"May?"

"Seattle has already been set, sir," May replied over the plane's intercom.

Coulson had no idea what was going on. They had seen things like this before but this one looked as if it were planned. He had seen things, done things that many people would deem suicidal. He had stood toe to toe with the alien who wanted to enslave the human race. He had done so much in his time with S.H.I.E.L.D. that he didn't know when his job ended and his life began.

It didn't take them too long to get to Seattle. The team assembled to disembark and find whatever was going on. As they moved throughout the city, his mind kept going back to the numbers. The area code was familiar. It had been a Dallas number, but not one he recognized. Skye had tried to run the numbers once more before they had left the bus but it was futile. The phone had to be a burner.

There was a loud crash and yelling up ahead. Ward and May were the first ones to break from the group. There was a fight up ahead. Three men were taking on a hooded person. Something about the fight wasn't right. Ward and May jumped in to make it a fair fight. They each took on one person to give the unknown person a fighting chance.

Coulson watched his team do what they did best. He also kept an eye on the third person. Something about her was very familiar. He was about to step in when one of the guys grabbed the backpack. He didn't have to as said person was thrown back and the hooded person pulled some sort of metal from the ground. It was a water pipe. They had pulled the water pipe straight from the ground, making a nice mess. Swinging wide, they used the pipe to knock the attacker out then dropped it in favor for running.

Ward gave chase.

"Don't hurt them!" Coulson called. "We need to ask questions!"

Ward acknowledged the order with a raised hand. He came in close and reached a hand out. He snagged the hood and jerked backwards. The person's head snapped back, but they shoved off the ball of their feet and launched themselves backwards. The momentum knocked Ward on his back and gave the person enough space to move. May went in to stop her but was choked due to the metal around her neck.

"Stop," Coulson said. He held up his hands in an attempt to make peace. "We're not going to hurt you. We just want to talk."

"Are you the one who's been lighting the beacons?" Skye asked.

The person flexed their hands. "Are you S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"You're a woman?" Ward asked as he pulled himself to a knee.

She ignored him. "Are you S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Yes," Coulson said, "yes, we are. Kindly let Agent May breathe. I don't think I'm going to be able to find a pilot." He held his breath as he waited. When May was breathing steadily again, he exhaled. "The men you took out, what did they want?"

"They wanted me. I don't care about me. I need to find my mother."

"Your mother?" Simmons asked. "They took your mother? Why?"

"Because of this." Ward was suddenly jerked to his feet and he stood beside her. He could move but not away. "I can control metal."

"What's your name?" Ward asked.

She looked up then she tossed her hood back. "My name's Dallyn Anderson."

Coulson felt as if he had been punched in the gut. He stared in the face of the woman he knew in his twenties, just as his career was beginning. He had kept in touch with her, but he had never known about this. Dallyn looked just like her mother, but she also had features of her father, namely his eyes.

"What's your mother's name?" he asked.

Dallyn looked at him. "Elise Anderson."

Ward looked at him. "Why would that matter?"

With the woman's eyes on him, he said, "She may be my daughter."


	2. Chapter 2

Dallyn stared in shock as her brain processed what was just said. She looked at the man closely. He was in his forties and had already started balding, meaning it was in the family genes. He wasn't much taller than her but was taller than her mother. She could see them together; her mother ranting and raving like she did when she got angry and him trying to calm her down. Elise wasn't a pushover, hadn't been since she had a fight with her parents and went off to music school.

As she looked closely, she could see the resemblance. She had her mother's coloring and pale auburn hair. But she had this man's eyes. She knew she did. She had lived twenty-six years with those eyes. The blue eyes she had been complimented on in the past stared at her with a mixture of shock, excitement and apprehension. She understood those emotions well for she felt them almost as strongly. They were together after twenty-six years. Who would have known?

To give herself something to do, she reached up and clipped the ear cuff to the outer part of her ear. She felt Ward drop to stand fully on his feet beside her. He grabbed his belt buckle then looked at her. She still didn't quite understand why her mother had fought her so long on getting the outside of her ear pierced only to buy her ear cuffs. Her mother made a lot of sense like that.

Sighing, she tossed back the hood and pulled a rubber band from her pocket. She swept her hair up as she started walking the other direction. If they were here for S.H.I.E.L.D., she might as well lead them to where she was staying. Her new cell phone was in its box in her bag. She needed to get home and take the programing out of it and reboot it so no one could track it. Her car had been refitted, something that had cost a lot of money and taken a lot of time to do. When she had a spare moment, she did what she could. It had taken two months to fix.

Ward looked back at Coulson as Dallyn started walking away. The older man nodded and the team followed the woman down the street. Now that they knew who she was it made it easier to do something. Coulson wasn't going to let his team hurt her, especially if she hadn't done anything wrong to deserve it. She was just looking for her mother. No one could blame her if she defended herself against people who wanted to take her like they had her mother.

As they walked, everyone kept an eye out. Dallyn looked at ease around the people of Seattle. She was at home in the big city. Coulson could tell by her movements. She maneuvered easily through the throng of people. She even spoke to some on her way through the town.

He wished he would have been around to see her grow up. Elise had been a good woman. She was vivacious and exciting. She took the illogical approach to many things and had the logical outcome so many desperately wanted. She was a wonderful cello player. Listening to her play was like having all of the day's horrors and annoyances melt away in a graceful melody. He had watched the way her fingers moved, but he could never figure out how to get his to do the same. Some people were just born with the ability to play.

Watching Dallyn made him wonder what his life would have been like if he had known about her. There was no doubt he would have stayed around. He would have taken her everywhere; to basketball games, plays, concerts. He would have watched her grow up and graduate high school and college. He would have answered the front door the first time her date came to pick her up. He would have danced with her at a father/daughter dance. There were so many things he missed out on because he had never contacted Elise after their two year affair. That was his mistake.

There was a loud noise behind him. They all turned around to see Simmons helping Fitz to his feet. Ward grunted as Dallyn pushed past him and pulled the briefcase from the ground. Fitz looked a little scared until she smiled at him.

"It's only a block up the street," she said. "If you want me to, I can look at it when we get there."

Fitz sputtered a little as he took the case back. . "No offense, but this is highly sensitive equipment. You'd have to have a seriously high degree to understand them."

Dallyn smiled secretly. "Whatever you say. Come this way."

She was right. Her place was only a block away from where they had stopped. She led them up the third floor walkup to a place that had been hollowed out. It kind of reminded Coulson of Stark's place. Except, Stark had things everywhere. Dallyn's workspace was centralized with everything else off to the side. Electronics were fired up all over the place.

"What the…" Skye brushed past everyone, not really caring that she was being completely rude. "How did you get all of this stuff?"

Dallyn slid her backpack off and began unloading it. "I built most of it from scrap parts. The rest of it I bought second hand and rebooted it. Most of it works better than any store bought ones."

"How did you build all of this? Many people can't tell the difference between a Windows computer and a MacBook Pro."

"I went to MIT and got a degree in engineering." She tossed a little smirk towards Fitz. "It helped me when I dismantled my Camaro outside and rebuilt it from the ground up. I don't have the GPS tracking device in it or in my new phone once I pull it apart."

Fitz, kind of put off by the fact that she had outwitted him, raised his hand like a schoolboy. "We've been traveling all day and haven't had anything to eat. Do you have any snacks by any chance?"

"Fitz!" Simmons scolded. She turned a horrified look to the other woman. "Please excuse him. He tends to be a little narrow minded."

Dallyn waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about it. The kitchen's through the door on the left. Knock yourself out. The bathroom's off the kitchen on the right."

Coulson nodded his team off to the kitchen to find something to eat. He had more pressing matters to attend. He watched Dallyn pull a box from her bag, carry it over to her desk, and open it. When she got the phone out, she pulled the device apart and went rooting around. She was quiet as she did so. He noticed she had a little of her mother in her when she worked. She especially had acquired sticking her tongue out of the edge of her mouth. Elise had done that when she was doing something very tedious.

How could Elise not tell him he had a daughter? They were young when they met. Elise had gotten her master's degree in music and was first chair in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He had been in school because his first passion was law enforcement. It was before he had ever gotten involved with S.H.I.E.L.D. They had met after a concert and hit it off. Not long after, they had moved in together. They had only been together a year when S.H.I.E.L.D. had called. Although it wasn't called S.H.I.E.L.D. then, he took the offer, leaving Elise behind. The relationship didn't last after that. Had he known Dallyn existed, he would have returned.

"If you're going to be all broody and hard, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Just because you think you're my dad doesn't mean I'll tolerate idiocy," she said. She never raised her head to look at him.

"You have to know that I'm your father," he said.

She shook her head. "Nope. Never had the parental instinct drive that other people had. I grew up with my mom and that was really all I needed. Yes, I wondered who my dad was, but I never went in search for him. There was no need."

"Dallyn, when's your birthday?"

"Don't you have it in your file?"

"We don't have a file on you. I made sure that the agency never looked into Elise. I said she didn't know where I was or what I was doing."

"Forgive me if I don't believe you. I lit the beacons in hopes that someone would find me and help. The only thing I had to go on was this." She pulled the chain over her head and held it up.

Coulson felt like he had been punched in the stomach. A few weeks before the relationship ended completely, he had sent that very medallion to Elise with strict instructions to use it if she ever got in trouble. He had even put his initials on the back so she would know he had meant it. The fact that she had held on to it wasn't lost on him.

"May I?" he asked barely above a whisper. His mouth was full of cotton.

Dallyn grunted then tossed it to him. He could understand her apprehension at giving over the only link she had to her father. If he was correct, Elise would never have thought to look at the edges of the medallion. He was right. He pushed the little pin button and out popped the minidisk. This was technology way before its time but it was timely now. He had made sure to conceal it well.

"Put this into your computer and look at it."

Dallyn crossed her arms. "You do realize that I am not one of your agents. I don't have to listen to you."

"It will help you."

She shook her head and took the disk. Once she had it in her computer, her eyes swept the information as fast as it popped up. She read fast and took notes in shorthand. He wondered if she had been tested for an eidetic memory. He would have to check into that.

"This is all well and good but I don't know what it has to do with me," she said.

"Your mother and I didn't stay together after I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. She loved her music too much, and Boston. I couldn't take her from that. We ended it mutually. Had I known you were even in the picture I would have returned. I would never have let her raise you on her own," he replied.

"Don't worry about it. We traveled until I was sixteen. She made good money being a traveling cellist. When I was sixteen we moved to Dallas so I could go to high school. After that, I went to MIT, majored in Engineering, and went home. I haven't had a very eventful life until three weeks ago when I got a letter from S.H.I.E.L.D. and four men came into my house and took my mother. That was also when I found out that I could control metal. Mom said she had hidden from me because she didn't want me to think I was different so I can't control it very well."

"When did your abilities come in?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Mom said I was thirteen, so puberty I guess. Why?"

"I think you may be a mutant." He fumbled with words as he saw the look of anger and shock clearly on her face. Calling his daughter a mutant wasn't the right thing to do. "Wait. Before you start throwing things, let me explain. I don't mean that you're freaky or anything of the like. Mutation is a part of everyday life. Your hair color is a mutation. Five fingers is a mutation. Things like that. There have been studies that have confirmed some people are granted abilities due to mutation. Mutant is just what they're called. It's not politically correct I know."

"Where does the mutation come from?"

Coulson opened his mouth to answer then it dawned on him. He rubbed his forehead. "It comes from the paternal genes." She raised an eyebrow at him. "I have no special abilities other than hand to hand combat and knowledge of technology. You, my dear, are very special."

Dallyn shook her head once again then went back to updating her phone. "Mom said she had a man create earrings for me that would dampen the urge to control metal. I wear one at all times. The other is tucked away but I can get to it if I need to."

"How have you survived these last two weeks?"

"You saw. You tell me."

Coulson frowned as the rest of the team ventured back. Dallyn went back to working on her phone, rewiring it so no one could trace it back to her. When she was done, she grabbed the phone she had been using and stomped on it. The burner phone was officially burned. When she was done, she turned to his team.

And was sufficiently surprised when Fitz held out a bowl of chips to her. She looked up at him. He shook the bowl as he munched on his own mouthful of salty goodness. Shaking her head, he pulled the bowl away with a slight frown but didn't argue. She did accept the bottle of water he handed her.

"All right," Ward said. "We need to know what happened."

Dallyn sighed but told them anyway. She shouldn't have sent them into the kitchen to eat. She hated repeating herself, but she did anyway. She watched the way they looked at her, like she had lost her mind. When she was done, Coulson explained what he thought was going on. It didn't make her feel any better. Too many people knowing about this kind of made her wary.

"There's only one way I see this going down," May said. Everyone looked at her. "She needs to be hidden and guarded at all times. I volunteer Ward."

"Yeah," Dallyn replied. "No. It's me they want and it's my mother they took. I am not sitting by idly as you find her. So get that thought out of your head."

"She's right. We have no way of knowing why they want her. Personally I don't think we should hide her," Ward said. He stared at her when she stared at him. "If it were my mother, I'd want to be right there."

"Oh, look," Skye said. "He has a soul."

May looked at Coulson. "What are we going to do?"

"Dallyn," he said and she looked at him. "Would you go with us? You can help us by searching for your mother. You and I are the only ones who know what she looks like. It would help increase our chances of finding their hideout if you can give them a picture of her."

Fitz agreed. "Yeah. We can run her picture through facial recognition software. It will double our chances of finding her."

Dallyn wrapped her arms around her waist. "I can do that. I can also help with facial recognition of a couple of the men. I got a good look at two when I was in my house."

"That's perfect."

"One condition though."

Ward groaned. "What's that?"

"I'm bringing my car."


	3. Chapter 3

"Are you sure bringing her onboard is the right thing to do?" May asked as she and Coulson walked back to the cockpit once they were back on the bus.

"I am. She needs our help. I won't leave her there to be taken like her mother," he replied as the door closed behind them.

"You can't be sure that she is your daughter. Just because she has your eyes doesn't mean that she is biologically yours."

"Are you saying that Elise cheated on me?"

"Not at all. I just think you're jumping to conclusions too soon."

"May, bring up her birth record." She did as she was asked and read through it. "Her birthday is May 7, 1987. I left in August of '86. She was born nearly nine months to the day. It doesn't take a genius to do the math. Plus," he pulled out the medallion and hooked it to the computer, "the last person to touch this was me. If you pull the prints off of it, you'll see the extra DNA. Match the DNA."

It took a few minutes because they were away from the main computer. When it made its findings known, May looked at the information printed out on the screen. Coulson let out his breath. DNA couldn't lie. Right in front of his face was the result of his relationship with Elise Anderson. Dallyn looked just like Elise but she had his eyes. Even though that was the only thing she had inherited from him, it was enough to let him understand that she was his. A parent knew his or her child.

May turned around and looked at Coulson. He had a far off look in his eye. She could tell he was beating himself up for not contacting the Andersons after he left. He would have been a great parent. There wasn't anything he wouldn't have done to make sure his child was taken care of. He would have moved hell and high water to do something. Dallyn was his child, but she wasn't a child. She was a twenty-six year old woman who had grown up with a loving mother and had no clue who her father was.

"Coulson, go to her. If you want to be part of her life, make a statement," she advised.

"She won't want to get to know me," he said. "Her mother's life may be at risk."

Without being told, she printed out a copy of the file and handed it to him. "She needs a parent right now to get through this. Go to her. She's in the lab with Fitz and Simmons."

Coulson wasn't convinced but May kicked him out of the cockpit anyway. He could always go back to his office, but then he would just look up things to give him some insight to the young woman they had picked up. His best bet was just to ask her questions and see if she answered him. All he could do was try.

So he went to the office where the two geniuses spent most of their time. Ward hated going into the den of the lions but most of his time was spent down there with Skye. The other woman had jumped right in and started helping with computer aspects. Fitz tended to lose his mind when that happened but lately he had been relaxing around her. He was opening up more and more. That was unusual for the timid Scotsman who carried on a non-English conversation with his counterpart.

When he walked in, there was an argument going on between Skye, Fitz and Dallyn. The newcomer was standing her ground against the two. Fitz had an engineering degree as well so he made a powerful opponent to Dallyn. Skye was a computer nerd who didn't have the same schooling as the other two but she was in there. The only difference was Dallyn understood metals. It showed in the way she touched the console which was metal and glass. The metal strained towards her hand. It made sense she would stand her ground with the two of them.

Sighing in agitation, the computer in Skye's hand lifted in the air and flew to Dallyn's. The shock in the room was palpable as they stared. Dallyn made her point by smashing the computer against the floor. As Skye was berating her with a foul mouth, she carefully lifted it and started putting it back together. Within twenty minutes, it was back up and running.

"And that, my friend, is how a technopath works," she said. She was angry. Anyone could see that. Anger made people do stupid things.

"All right, children," Coulson said. Everyone swung to look at him. Everyone except Dallyn. She crossed her arms and blanked her face. Oh, yeah. She was her mother's daughter. "Enough bickering."

"Is there something you needed, sir?" Ward asked, wedging his body between the feuding groups.

"Hand this to Dallyn."

The woman's eyes, his eyes, swung to him. "What is it?"

"Just read it."

It took a couple of seconds for her to do it. Ward had to motion viciously for her to take it. He recognized the look on her face. Her mother got that look when she really didn't want to do anything. Obviously she had passed that trait down to her daughter. Ward finally grabbed her hand, which was bad enough because she ripped it away violently but she went away with the paper. Ward looked smug but he didn't see the wire sneaking up on him. He jerked backwards when it latched on to his hand. She made a little face at him before looking down at the paper.

Coulson waited for some sort of reaction. Nothing ever came so he figured she didn't care. She raised her eyes to him once again. There was something there he couldn't quite figure out. He hadn't seen anything like it before. It looked to be a mix between happiness, sadness, anticipation, and anger. The mixture was something he hated to see in women. He could never figure out what one was thinking when she was so quiet. He could handle anger and the yelling that came with it. He could handle the sadness and the crying. Happiness had a little bit of crying as well. He could handle anything. No emotion was a bad sign all the way around.

"Why'd you show me this?" she asked.

He couldn't decipher her tone. That wasn't her mother's aspect. Elise would yell at him. "I wanted to prove it to you."

"Why? I believed you the first time."

That took him by surprise. "You did?"

She nodded. "Why would a man lie about being someone's father, especially with DNA testing? That's just cruel." She folded the paper and tucked it in her back pocket. "You'd have to do something really stupid for me not to believe you."

Coulson had to take a minute to let that sink in. She had believed him the first go round. He hadn't thought that far ahead. Not many women her age took a man at face value. Elise had taught her well.

He cleared his throat, realizing that everyone was staring at him. "I wanted to make sure you knew it was true. Once I did that, I was going to ask you to join me for dinner once we touch down in Munich."

Dallyn smiled. "I'd love to." The smile dropped immediately. "Wait. Munich? Why are we going to Munich?"

"We tracked your mother's cell phone there," Skye said.

"My mother doesn't have a cell phone. She has a company phone but not a personal one."

"That sounds right. Elise hated technology that wasn't associated with music. She was more of a free spirit," Coulson replied. He looked at Dallyn when she inclined her head to him.

"Then why was the phone in your mother's name?" Ward asked.

"Why is your weapon registered? The orchestra assigned all their traveling musicians phones whether they had personal one or not. The phone was always in her name but she never paid for it. When she stopped touring, they transferred the number to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. And how did they get her phone? It was in her purse in the living room. We were upstairs when we were attacked. I knocked two of them out. The other two followed me out of the house. I didn't see them inside when I doubled back."

"Someone had to go into that house when you were safely away. They would go through everything until they found something that would lead you to them. They knew you would go to someone who would have the technology to hunt them down. They'll know the instant you're on their trail."

Coulson frowned at the closeness of the man to Dallyn. She frowned at him as well, pulling her hand from her chin to stare at him for a brief second. She stepped away from him and rounded the consol. Ward was slightly shocked. Apparently he wasn't used to being turned down by a woman when he went after one. Coulson wasn't used to the violent urge to kill as he was now.

"What do we do now?" Skye asked.

"We wait until we get to Munich. Once we get there, we're working," Coulson replied.

"We want Dallyn!" Fitz Simmons said at the same time. They smiled at each other then at Dallyn as she looked at them with an amused expression.

"All right. Get to work."


End file.
